Is it out of print? Whenever I see a new copy of the CD for sale, it's expensive as hell. All of their other albums are priced fairly most everywhere. It doesn't pop out to me as a label dispute because they recorded with that same label (noise) more than once, which I found when I flipped through wikipedia for a minute. It is produced by Tolkki, which can seem like a possible area of dispute at first glance, but he was also the producer for multiple albums which aren't all crazy expensive.
My other theory is that a lot of their albums could be out of print but still readily available because Visions appears to be the popular album that would fly off of the shelves at the speed of light (pun intended).
This also could have something to do just with my country, as I live in the US and not in the EU.

I got a copy on the cheap a few years back, but I know at local record stores I haven't seen Visions or any of the classic ones in a while. Either Nemesis/Eternal when they first came out, or a few of the less popular ones like Elements 2 and the self-titled.

As a fellow fan in the US I feel your pain. However I bought all my albums online years ago for prices between $5 and $15. I think the most I ever paid was $20 - a lucky ebay bid for a sealed copy of the self-titled with the bonus DVD. The only one I haven't found for a decent price is Fright Night.

The problem with Visions is quite simple.
As you said, it was recorded under Noise Records but, in 2005, they've signed with Sanctuary Records after been under Nuclear Blast for a while.
The rights of their back catalogue, such as Visions, were sold to Sanctuary, of course (but not Infinite, Intermission and Elements, these album were under Nuclear Blast).
Then, in 2008, Tolkki tried to disband Strato, as we all know, 'cause he decided to sign a contract with Scarlet Records.
This contract stated, as declared by Tolkki, that he will be under contract after Stratovarius quits from music, and with him leaving the band.
Something failed, in Tolkki's masterplan, and he decided to sell the rights of the moniker to Kotipelto, Johansson and Michael.
The recent going ons are history: Strato, since they have had a contract with Sanctuary, were obliged to pay a sanction to their label, something like 150000 euros of debts, and the guys almost financially cracked, thanks to Tolkki.
But, since they're badass, they decided to carry on and in 2008 they signed for EarMusic/EdelRecords, then they released Polaris, Elysium, Nemesis and Eternal.
Here lies the answer: Visions isn't that rare, in the past I've bought a pair of copies without problems (one used for 10 euros and one new, by my CD store, for 18 euros).
The problem, with Strato stuff, is that no one printed the old CDs for a long time, remember?
The rights of their back catalogue were in the hands of Sanctuary and, due to this thing, Strato could not print it without permission.
Last Visions printing was in 2005, that's why the prices are high, Noise version is difficult to find, it's old and never sealed, Sanctuary one, instead, is easy to find sealed but, since Vision is their famous and best album, at least for a lot of people, and since no one printed it for a while, price raised a bit.
But then again, it's possible to find it for 20 euros on ebay and discogs.
Anyway, just to let you know, their rights for oldest stuff are back in their hand (Edel hands) since last year, that's why they decided to reprint Destiny and Visions of Europe so, if you can wait for a little, they'll reprint everything.
Next one must be Episode or Visions with bonus contents (Kotipelto and Johansson were in Germany, last year, to record some Piano and Voice only extra stuff).

Quite difficult, isn't it?

Years and years of stalking, I know pretty damn well everything about Strato

Pancio wrote:The problem with Visions is quite simple.
As you said, it was recorded under Noise Records but, in 2005, they've signed with Sanctuary Records after been under Nuclear Blast for a while.
The rights of their back catalogue, such as Visions, were sold to Sanctuary, of course (but not Infinite, Intermission and Elements, these album were under Nuclear Blast).
Then, in 2008, Tolkki tried to disband Strato, as we all know, 'cause he decided to sign a contract with Scarlet Records.
This contract stated, as declared by Tolkki, that he will be under contract after Stratovarius quits from music, and with him leaving the band.
Something failed, in Tolkki's masterplan, and he decided to sell the rights of the moniker to Kotipelto, Johansson and Michael.
The recent going ons are history: Strato, since they have had a contract with Sanctuary, were obliged to pay a sanction to their label, something like 150000 euros of debts, and the guys almost financially cracked, thanks to Tolkki.
But, since they're badass, they decided to carry on and in 2008 they signed for EarMusic/EdelRecords, then they released Polaris, Elysium, Nemesis and Eternal.
Here lies the answer: Visions isn't that rare, in the past I've bought a pair of copies without problems (one used for 10 euros and one new, by my CD store, for 18 euros).
The problem, with Strato stuff, is that no one printed the old CDs for a long time, remember?
The rights of their back catalogue were in the hands of Sanctuary and, due to this thing, Strato could not print it without permission.
Last Visions printing was in 2005, that's why the prices are high, Noise version is difficult to find, it's old and never sealed, Sanctuary one, instead, is easy to find sealed but, since Vision is their famous and best album, at least for a lot of people, and since no one printed it for a while, price raised a bit.
But then again, it's possible to find it for 20 euros on ebay and discogs.
Anyway, just to let you know, their rights for oldest stuff are back in their hand (Edel hands) since last year, that's why they decided to reprint Destiny and Visions of Europe so, if you can wait for a little, they'll reprint everything.
Next one must be Episode or Visions with bonus contents (Kotipelto and Johansson were in Germany, last year, to record some Piano and Voice only extra stuff).

Quite difficult, isn't it?

Years and years of stalking, I know pretty damn well everything about Strato

Does Edel/EM own all the albums now, or is Infinite/Elements still in the hands of Nuclear Blast?

Pancio wrote:The problem with Visions is quite simple.
As you said, it was recorded under Noise Records but, in 2005, they've signed with Sanctuary Records after been under Nuclear Blast for a while.
The rights of their back catalogue, such as Visions, were sold to Sanctuary, of course (but not Infinite, Intermission and Elements, these album were under Nuclear Blast).
Then, in 2008, Tolkki tried to disband Strato, as we all know, 'cause he decided to sign a contract with Scarlet Records.
This contract stated, as declared by Tolkki, that he will be under contract after Stratovarius quits from music, and with him leaving the band.
Something failed, in Tolkki's masterplan, and he decided to sell the rights of the moniker to Kotipelto, Johansson and Michael.
The recent going ons are history: Strato, since they have had a contract with Sanctuary, were obliged to pay a sanction to their label, something like 150000 euros of debts, and the guys almost financially cracked, thanks to Tolkki.
But, since they're badass, they decided to carry on and in 2008 they signed for EarMusic/EdelRecords, then they released Polaris, Elysium, Nemesis and Eternal.
Here lies the answer: Visions isn't that rare, in the past I've bought a pair of copies without problems (one used for 10 euros and one new, by my CD store, for 18 euros).
The problem, with Strato stuff, is that no one printed the old CDs for a long time, remember?
The rights of their back catalogue were in the hands of Sanctuary and, due to this thing, Strato could not print it without permission.
Last Visions printing was in 2005, that's why the prices are high, Noise version is difficult to find, it's old and never sealed, Sanctuary one, instead, is easy to find sealed but, since Vision is their famous and best album, at least for a lot of people, and since no one printed it for a while, price raised a bit.
But then again, it's possible to find it for 20 euros on ebay and discogs.
Anyway, just to let you know, their rights for oldest stuff are back in their hand (Edel hands) since last year, that's why they decided to reprint Destiny and Visions of Europe so, if you can wait for a little, they'll reprint everything.
Next one must be Episode or Visions with bonus contents (Kotipelto and Johansson were in Germany, last year, to record some Piano and Voice only extra stuff).

Quite difficult, isn't it?

Years and years of stalking, I know pretty damn well everything about Strato

Does Edel/EM own all the albums now, or is Infinite/Elements still in the hands of Nuclear Blast?

I believe that both Elements are in the hands of Edel, that's why they've recently reprinted Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 with tons of extra stuff, like the t-shirt, the audiocassette with some demos and the CDs plus DVD with some live tracks and the 5.1 stereo mixes of the whole double album.
About Infinite, it's from 2000 and the two Elements are from 2003, so they must have their right back as well.
Not to mention that their last best of contains songs from all Nuclear Blast release, so yes, they have back everything (actually dunno 'bout Fright Night, the material was under CBS/Sony Music and I think it's still like this)

HinatAArcticA wrote:Oh... also, what's wrong with Fright Night? It has some really nice more rocky songs.

Nothing's inherently wrong with it, on its own, but I think it has aged horribly. It's also pretty amateur songwriting, extremely 80s in a lot of bad ways, and even the second album sounds is a huge leap in quality, in my opinion. Just the black sheep of their repertoire, I think.

HinatAArcticA wrote:Oh... also, what's wrong with Fright Night? It has some really nice more rocky songs.

Nothing's inherently wrong with it, on its own, but I think it has aged horribly. It's also pretty amateur songwriting, extremely 80s in a lot of bad ways, and even the second album sounds is a huge leap in quality, in my opinion. Just the black sheep of their repertoire, I think.

"80s in a lot of bad ways" sums up the phrase I was looking for lmao. The same way that Dreamspace was extremely 80s in a lot of good ways.

My main problem with Fright Night is that I can't remember most of the songs, as much as I listen to it. I mostly remember Future Shock thanks to the '96 version and uh, some small bits of other songs. I think my Twilight time is still sealed, but not sure..